I absolutely love this recipe! My family thinks it is great also. I have some in a pot on the stove right now, as a matter of fact--great for a chilly night like tonight. I wouldn't change a thing and I also added a carrot and stalk of celery to my first batch, which just made it all the better. In tonight's batch I am going to add two carrots and a parsnip. This is just a really great recipe and I can't thank you enough. A++++++++++

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This was a wonderful soup. Full of great flavor and very nutritious. If you are wanting to get your kids to eat beans and barley this soup is great. My kids didn't even notice those things were in there.

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I tried it as specified without changing it and I find that it was too mushy.
Since then, I've not added rice or pasta. But added vegetables (carrots, cabbage, onions, celery). And different kinds of beans. Make for a complete healthy meal.

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This is both beautiful to give and delicious to eat. The soup is something different than most people make in a hurry, but making the mix ahead provides people a chance to have a fun new meal with not much work.

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I'm sorry, I followed the recipe exactly and just didn't find this soup at all flavorful. Because of all the great reviews, I will try it again, but this time I will follow others suggestions by using 14 oz of diced and seasoned tomatoes (rather than 28 oz), a can of tomato sauce (rather than paste), a package of dry onion soup mix (rather than the minced onion), and double either the rice or pasta, (stead of using both).

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I received this as a gift from my sister and it was fabulous!! Not only does it look pretty in the jar but it taste wonderful! Instead of putting beef granules in the jar my sister instructed to make soup with 10 cups of beef stock instead of 10 cups of water (saved her money). I simply dissolved 10 beef bouillon cubes in 10 cups of water. I used ground turkey instead of ground beef and used a can of tomato soup instead of the tomato paste. My husband and 6-year-old LOVED it... they both had seconds and my husband begged me to get the recipe so we can make it again.

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A friend of mine gave me a jar of this soup for a gift. It was really good! My family is not big on soup, but they went back for seconds! Now, I'm on-line getting the recipe because my husband asked that we make it again! There's not many ground beef soups that I've found, this one is easy and very good.

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I gave this out as gifts this year and my goodness, what a reception! This soup is wonderful. It looks nice in the jars and tastes sooo good. The baskets had this soup mix, the can of tomatoes, the tomato sauce, a big ladle, and a package of corn bread. Every thing they'd need except the meat. (I filled in with some other little homemade treats.) It made up a very nice basket. Everyone loved them. Thanks for a truly wonderful post. I will surely be using this again!